Editing with Tone Tools

Under both the histogram and white balance tools in the edit panel, there is a panel that says “tone.” Within tone there are sliders for Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity. Each one of these can be adjusted according to your preference and goals when editing a photo.

Adjusting each tone slider individually can bring your photo to new heights. You can pop shadows, increase or decrease contrast or exposure, change your highlight points, increase or decrease whites and blacks, or edit your clarity.

Each one of these adjusted individually will help you create the perfect photo. By manually adjusting these aspects of your photo, you can manipulate your photo to be representative of what you saw when you actually took it, as opposed to how the camera captured it.

Select an image and open the edit panel.

Below the histogram and white balance panels, under the header “Tone” there are sliders for Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity.

Slide the tonal adjustments as necessary to create edit each scale individually.

You can also manually type in the number you would like to adjust your photo to in the white box next to the slider.

Available Tone Adjustments

Exposure: When an image is over exposed it will appear extremely bright and washed out. Under exposed and it will appear grey and hazy. To increase exposure, slide the exposure slider to the right. To decrease, slide it to the left.

Contrast: Is the difference between whites and blacks in your photo. When the contrast of an image is too low it can appear to lose its detail and be nearly washed out. Too high and the image may feel like it “pops” too much. To decrease contrast, slide the contrast slider to the left. To increase, slide it to the right.

Highlights: Highlights are defined as the brightest area of a photo. Too much highlight in a photo can create a clipping affect, wherein detail is lost. For example, clouds can appear to wash into one another. In Mylio you can actually view where your highlights are washed out by utilizing the “Toggle Highlight Clipping” tool in the Edit panel. In the upper right hand corner of the histogram there is a light grey circle. Clicking this will highlight areas of red in your photo. These are areas where you are experiencing clipping in the photo. To adjust, slide the Highlights slider to the left to decrease the highlights.

Shadows: Shadows are defined as the darkest area of your photo. Too much shadow in a photo can create a clipping affect, wherein detail is lost. In Mylio you can actually view where your highlights are washed out by utilizing the “Toggle Shadow Clipping” tool in the Edit panel. In the upper left hand corner of the histogram there is a dark grey circle. Clicking this will highlight areas of blue in your photo. These are areas where you are experiencing clipping in the photo. To adjust, slide the Shadow slider to the right to decrease the shadow.

Whites: Whites function similarly to highlights within your photo, except in relation to true whites rather than just bright spots. To adjust the whites within your photo, slide the Whites slider to the right to brighten the whites, and to the left to darken the whites.

Blacks: Blacks function similarly to shadows within your photo, except in relation to true blacks rather than just shaded spots. To adjust the blacks within your photo, slide the Blacks slider to the right to brighten the blacks, and to the left to darken the blacks.

Clarity: Clarity is defined as the detail of the midtones within your image.The clarity slider works by increasing some of the edge detail in the midtones giving a general sharpening. To adjust clarity, slide the Clarity slider to the right to sharpen, and to the left to remove detail

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